‘Canada-India collaboration to make Indian bridges safer’

Source: The Hitavada Date: 01 Sep 2017 09:42:11

Business Bureau,

Canada India Research Center of Excellence (www.ic-impacts.com) organised a workshop on ‘Digital monitoring of critical infrastructure for safety and maintenance’ to inform the infrastructure owners of the city of advanced Canadian technologies that can significantly improve the safety of bridges and other critical infrastructure.

Nanda Jichkar, City Mayor presided over the workshop which was attended by Ashwin Mudgal, Municipal Commissioner of NMC; Jordan Reeves, Consulate General of Canada in Mumbai, Dr Ramnath Sonawane, CEO of Nagpur Smart City Project and Tejinder Singh Renu, Secretary of Vidarbha Taxpayers Association (VTA). With IC-IMPACTS in lead, the workshop was co-organised by Tata Consulting Services (TCS), Stantec Canada and Starmass Environmental Technologies, Canada.

Dr Nemy Banthia, Scientific Director and CEO of IC-IMPACTS, who is also a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia in Canada, explained the sensor technology and emphasised the versatility and resilience of the technology which is now being adopted in monitoring scores of structures in Canada, US, Japan, etc. IC-IMAPCTS has developed number or novel sensors and associated analysis algorithms that can on the one hand, provide terra-bytes of data to fully understand how the different parts of the bridge are functioning, and issue alarms when they are not.

“If the bridge is facing an imminent collapse, the sensors provide distress signals way ahead of time so the traffic can be diverted, authorities can be informed and corrective measures can be taken. These sensors are now becoming an indispensable tool in the toolkit of infrastructure owners for sustainable and cost effective management of city’s assets,” Banthia said.

In Nagpur, two bridges have been identified for assessing the said sensorial technology. They include the iconic, cable-stayed bridge Ramjhoola that connects the eastern Nagpur with its western counterparts, and the Panchpaoli Overpass.

“There are immense possibilities for Canada and India both in various sectors. As far as Nagpur is concerned, we discussed role of digital monitoring of critical infrastructure to enhance safety and improve maintenance,” said Jordan Reeves, Consul General of Canada to India, in Mumbai.

Already, he said, 700 people were engaged in various projects in India under Canada-India co-operation. Department of Science and Technology was engaged in at least three major projects including cleaning of holy river Ganga. Tejinder Singh Renu, Secretary of VTA and Shiraz Doongaji, MD of Stewols India (P) Ltd. Nagpur are coordinating between IC-IMPACTS, NMC and State Government in public interest. Workshop was also attended by Professor Arvind Gupta, former President of UBC, Dr Hugues Vogel, Bridge Engineer, Stantec, R P Bhivgade, Asstt Commissioner of NMC, Vijay Banginwar of PWD and others.